Ms. Henry integrates her discoveries into science instruction
Photo credit: Jill Henry
Last summer, Herrick Science Teacher Jill Henry attended the Discoveries in Geosciences (DIG) Field School in the Hell Creek formation near Jordan, Montana. Paleontologists from the University of Washington/Burke Museum of Natural History led this four-day learning opportunity for K-12 teachers from across the United States.
“We spent four days learning and doing the work of paleontologists,” Ms. Henry said. “We learned the methods for recording data in our notebooks, the best methods for locating and collecting fossils, and how to identify the bones we found. The paleontologists taught us how they do their work and then we got to experience firsthand what it is like to find and collect dinosaur bones.”
Ms. Henry added that she discovered many items, including turtle scutes, gar scales (a gar is a type of fish) and dinosaur bones, which will be added to the Burke Museum’s collection.
“We also went to a site where the graduate students we were with were trying to finish uncovering a triceratops in the side of a hill,” Ms. Henry said. “At one point, I remember saying that it is pretty amazing that we were the first humans to touch the bones we were finding in millions of years. I also got to touch the layer of ash in the earth that settled during the time when the mass extinction caused the dinosaurs to go extinct.”
Ms. Henry’s DIG School experience is benefitting her students, too. She’s applying her learning experiences into her instruction this year.
“This experience was one of the best science teacher professional development experiences I have had,” she said. “I try to teach science by having my students do science, and I feel as though this experience has allowed me to bring back to my classroom the experience of what it is really like to be a scientist in the field. The program has also opened up the opportunity for my students to be able to help sort and identify some of the fossils we collected this summer later on this school year and has increased my professional learning network from the connections with teachers I made while there.”
Ms. Henry also said that the DIG Field School paleontologists referenced how they use the Science and Engineering Practices, which are key components of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) instruction, in everything they do.
“It reassured me that the science that is happening in my classroom through all of the work I have been doing to implement NGSS is allowing my students to experience what it is truly like to act and think like scientists,” Ms. Henry said. Learn more about the 2018 DIG Field School.